Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta dying
Posted on | December 3, 2008 |
The state of California, by way of bureaucratic policy, is killing the Delta that feeds the San Francisco Bay. Northern California supplies much of the Central Valley and southern CA with water for all kinds of agricultural projects. I found out today that the current practices divert massive amounts of water to cotton fields, cow pastures and alfalfa. Much of this is exported.
The problem is that a lot of the land being irrigated is a desert. 12-18 inches below the top soil lies a layer of clay that keeps water from draining properly. It also contains toxins that leech into the water when these fields are irrigated.
Also, farmers use inefficient irrigation methods. Carolee Krieger told me about 50% of the irrigation is flood irrigation and around 40% overhead sprinklers. Almost none is drip irrigation-the most efficient use of water.
So, the state pumps massive amount of water to polluted fields not sustainable for agriculture. It gets wasted through inefficient irrigation methods, gets contaminated by the natural toxins, pesticides and fertilizers. The water runsoffs or gets dumped back into the San Joaquin river and returns to the Delta, contaminated, and kills the endangered or protected fish. The whole ecosystem is collapsing in one of the most important water supplies in the United States.
Agricultural subsidies also work to undermine a sustainable water system. Municipalities pay 4 or 5 times what agriculture pays for water use. So, farmers can get away with wasting it.
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